


When The Wolf Comes Home

by buffydyke



Category: Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Buffy the Vampire Slayer (Comics)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, F/F, Femslash, Season 8, Trans Female Character, angst kind of? idk the tillow is angsty, but the willoz is happy
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-03-03
Updated: 2017-03-03
Packaged: 2018-09-28 01:25:12
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 706
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10061687
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/buffydyke/pseuds/buffydyke
Summary: It's been years since Willow woke up next to Oz.





	

It’s been years since Willow woke up next to Oz.

A few months ago, Willow wouldn’t have thought it possible. She’d loved and lost in every sense of the word since Oz’s departure, and Tara’s absence left a gaping hole in her heart that Willow was sure would never be whole again. 

Some days, it was all Willow could do to get out of bed. She still felt Tara’s loss in every fibre of her being; every inch of her soul ached for what had been stolen from it. There were moments when Willow felt she couldn’t breathe, when she felt the sadness and longing so vividly that it was as if she were drowning. She feared that one day, it would swallow her up and she’d never find her way back to the surface. 

_Goddess_ , she found herself praying in those early day, _please just give me the strength to go on_. 

Eventually, she went on. She was able to wake up in the morning (something that the coven had made sure of in the days when Willow had considered finding a way to prevent it), and go about her day. She was feeble, numb, and feeling like she had a gaping hole in her chest, but it was living. She was alive. She could only hope that one day, it would be enough. 

Time heals some wounds. Others just get buried deeper inside as one finds a way to reconstruct their life. Willow thought of Oz as a wound that had long since healed; one that barely took a precedence to the new ones that had formed.

Two days ago, Willow met back up with Oz in Tibet. 

She’d gone there with Buffy for a mission; something about needing a place to hide from Twilight’s army. The whole fiasco was getting way too out of hand for Buffy’s (and Willow’s, for that matter) comfort, and they knew they needed Oz’s help.

As it turned out, a lot had changed since the last time they saw each other. 

Oz was a woman. She still looked relatively the same; choppy, frequently dyed hair and old t-shirts, but there were obvious differences. In a way, it all made perfect sense to Willow. She’d always dated girls and just hadn’t known it. 

And so last night, they’d stayed up into the early morning hours just talking. Willow had delved into her spiral into dark magic and Tara’s death, along with her subsequent attempt to destroy the world. Oz had discussed her rituals for controlling the wolf as well as her journey to self acceptance. Oz explained everything as simply as she could; how her time in Tibet had not only helped her come to terms with the wolf, but also with herself. It turned out there was a reason she’d felt just as uncomfortable in her human skin as her wolf one. 

And, as it turns out, her love life had been far less complicated and dramatic as Willow’s. Girls came and went, but none had really stuck. She was well over Willow -- she’d buried that part of her life --, but she’d never found someone to take her place. 

“ _I had a dog_ ,” Oz had joked. “ _But he ran away one night after I shifted. Guess he didn’t like other dogs._ ” 

They’d fallen asleep like that; curled on Oz’s pallet and talking about everything that came to their minds. And when Willow wakes up, she feels a tug in her chest that she thought she’d long forgotten.

Oz can’t replace Tara. Willow isn’t sure anyone ever will. She’d loved Tara with such an intensity that she’s sure her heart will never be able to muster again. But maybe Oz doesn’t have to replace Tara. Maybe this is something new. Maybe not. Maybe this is just a time when two people from each other’s pasts cross paths for a while and then go their separate ways. Continue on with their lives, just as they had done before the fateful day when they’d reconnected. 

Willow doesn’t know. She can’t possibly know. But when she sees Oz lying beside her, the first few rays of early morning light creeping through the window, she thinks she might be okay with not knowing.

**Author's Note:**

> Title from Up The Wolves by The Mountain Goats.
> 
> Catch me on [Tumblr](http://www.wlwbuffy.tumblr.com).
> 
> Side note: I'm not a trans woman, so let me know if there are any issues with how I've written Oz (i.e. her coming to terms with her gender identity). I'm v here for comfort, folks.


End file.
